I love fancy dress, and there is no way this is not a fancy dress costume. It is an 1885 painting of La Marquis D'Hervey Saint-Denys by Raimundo De MadrazoY Garreta. And the important thing is that this woman has a flamingo on her head. Oh yeah. I also really like her fixed flamingo fan. Although perhaps it is a scepter, because I think a lot of fancy dress outfits include those. I should probably do a post on pretty fixed fans, because I've been inspired by those lately. We shall see...
The interesting thing about her headdress is that it is probably a real stuffed flamingo. I've seen photographs of fancy dress costumes and their use of taxidermy is startling. I mean "startling" because no one expects to see a stuff cat on a woman's head, or wrapped around her neck, or a stuffed goose/duck on the head like this flamingo.
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